Saturday, 20 April 2013

Novelist in the making

A Plot for a best selling political novel:

Just imagine you are a NZ novelist and you are planning your next book or publication. You want something contemporary, realistic, political, something that has the foundation to build an exciting tale of international espionage, greed and power, politicians lying, police action and even the odd bit of sex thrown in for good measure…and not forgetting weapons of mass destruction possibilities…all the ingredients for a best seller.

The first thing you need to do is to construct a plot, the next stage would be to design a scenario in which that plot could take shape, after that you would create the characters and the occupations of those characters, then you could begin to give the various characters some solid descriptions that would make the characters life-like and acceptable to possible readers.

The possible plot: ‘The take over of a country from within. [A well tested plot used in all James Bonds best sellers]

The scenario: A political party [grouping] decides that elections are not the best way of ensuring they remain in control, unless you can dictate before hand the results of an election, this plus a large dose of both greed, power and manipulation.

This scenario is not new both in fiction, nor the real world. The Nazi’s had Hitler, Russian Communists had Stalin, England had Cromwell and so on: There is one common factor with those three examples and many other dictatorships, each depended on; the military and secret security forces for all played a key role just as they did in Argentina, Chile and many other places, even some small countries like Fiji etc.

Since we live in New Zealand and want to base our story on NZ. Let’s construct a feasible storyline for this scenario in Aotearoa, or the land of the long white cloud…

Setting the scene: Two major political parties both take turns at governing, declining standards of living for all but the wealthy, foreign corporations, i.e. the banks, food manufacturing, importing and exporting etc; At the moment the most rightwing one of the two parties is in control. Its leader and Prime Minister a multi-millionaire on leave from Wall Street.Leading characters must be realistic and recognisable…

Firstly the Chief of the Defence Force [CDF] retires and becomes the Chief of the Government Communications Security Bureau then after only a short period becomes Governor General, the one common factor here is that all those positions are authorised by the same person, the Prime Minister and we should note that…

Now at the same time we need to construct a picture of what these key positions actually control. Presently they control: All Laws or acts passed by parliament as well as direct control of over the armed forces and police [Governor General].

All NZ’s spying activities, both; external and internal [Head of the GCSB, police and SIS] plus oversight by the Prime Minister.

On the other hand there are other organisations used to uphold democratic processes and these still exist [for now], for example ‘The Human Rights Commission’. This organisation is vital for the protection of New Zealanders constitutional rights because presently the Government can legally by a majority cancel general elections anytime it wishes to, and change any law it likes. According to NZ Law no one is supreme over parliament.

Other than canceling elections the scenario above has now taken place in New Zealand [over the last few years]: The head of the NZDF retired [Lt. General Jerry Mateparae], and he replace the then head of the GCSB [Sir Bruce Ferguson] for a short time he was then appointed by the PM to the position of GG. That left the position of Head of the GCSB vacant and the PM shoulder tapped a friend [Ian Fletcher] and then appointed him as Head of the GCSB after ignoring all other applicants, this is legal under NZ law, or so it would seem.

While this was happening, concurrently other changes were taking place and these would fit beautifully into our scenario, one of these has been the takeover of the Human Rights Commission, and this has taken place generally under the radar of public scrutiny: And this is fact…not fiction.

10 permanent staff (15% of the total FTE) and approx 10 staff on fixed term positions were disestablished officially yesterday at the Human Rights Commission while National have appointed their mates and friends like multivitamin spokesperson Susan Devoy to Race Relations, National Party MP Jackie Blue to EEO, and ACT acolyte Ken Shirley, religiously conservative Ravi Musuku and homophobe Brian Neeson to the Human Rights Review Tribunal. This is on top of Rugby old boy David Rutherford being appointed as the hatchet man to scalp the HRC of its ability to bite.

The only minor element not under full control by the Prime Minister or the Governor General is the GCSB’s ability to spy on New Zealand citizens or residents. At the moment that is illegal in NZ, at least until the PM changes the law to allow it. Although it hasn’t stopped them illegally from doing it, but he is producing a bill at this point to retrospectively approve the criminal behaviour and making it legal in the future.

Now introduce into this mix a few outside factors and you’ll have the basis for a worthy plot, one of intrigue, blackmail, foreign intervention, trade politics, financial manipulation and general mayhem as found in the finest authored and best selling novels.

For example introduce: A rather large German, a NZ resident living in a huge mansion in PM’s electorate wanted by the FBI for crimes against big US businesses. Add to that mix a FBI sponsored raid on that very same mansion. Include a politician on the take [John Banks would be a good model],

Stir well, with a much desired trade deal between the US and NZ. Then combine those interesting aspects with the possible manufacturing of weapons of mass destruction in a hidden plant in down town Wellington not far from the American and UK embassies. Then introduce some local terrorists from the wild Tahoe hills practicing their violent takeover skills across the land and without doubt the novel will be a best seller here in NZ.

Do all that and:

You will become famous overnight, as both an author and a New Zealander worthy of note. Peter Jackson will quickly buy the filming rights for a million or two of tax-payers money, Paula Bennett will introduce you to the nation as living proof of her helping kiwis out of the benefit welfare trap and Judith Collins may well invite you be a special commissioner in the Human Rights area and she may even make you the boss. Lastly the PM might invite you for a weekend in Hawaii…and advise you to open a bank account off-shore to lessen your tax burden…or to buy Trans-rail shares and put them under your bed. Follow his financial advice and it could well lead to a knighthood.

So my final suggestion is: Start writing now, all the elements are there, but be quick because if you are not, the GCSB might just choose you as their next victim…